Government not to scrap SSC exams despite question paper leaks

Even after evidence emerged that multiple question papers of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations were leaked this year, the Education Ministry has ruled out any plan to scrap the exams.

The decision was formally announced by Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid at a press conference held at the Education Ministry on Thursday, following the submission of the report and recommendations of the evaluation committee.

The minister said: “Only 0.25% of the students were the beneficiaries of the leaked questions. The evaluation committee has decided not to cancel any exam as four to five thousand examinees would be hampering more than 2,000,000 students. Therefore, the government has decided not to scrap any exam.”

“There will be no major impact in the results of 99.75% of the examinees because of only 0.25% of the students. The decision to not cancel the exams has been taken after considering the sufferings of students if they have to retake the tests,” Nahid said at the press conference.

Furthermore, no exams under the Madrasa and Technical Education Board will be canceled as there were no allegations of question paper leaks there, he added.

Also Read- SSC question leak: Why isn’t the govt cancelling the exams?
Citing the report of the evaluation committee, the education minister said that only the 30 point MCQ portion of the ‘Kha’ set was leaked in 12 subjects, while no questions of the 70 point creative section were leaked.
He further said that the question papers were shared in a few closed groups on the social media site Facebook. Each of these groups consisted of 10-100 members and some 40-50 groups were involved in the question leaks, he said.
“The examinees got the leaked questions only 20 minutes before the exam. Only four to five thousand students may have received the leaked questions,” Nahid said.
“There was a requirement to enter the exam hall 30 minutes before the exam. It is not easy to find the correct answers of 30 MCQs in 30 minutes. Therefore, the overall result will hardly be affected,” the minister added.